Employment attorneys are keeping busy these days dealing with issues that were virtually unheard of before a pandemic and social reckoning shook the world four years ago.

Employers are seeking their advice on a host of hot-button topics, including questions around attendance policies, the rise in union organizing and appropriate responses to demands from employees for statements on divisive social issues.

We spoke with seven employment law specialists from Portland firms to gain insights into the latest trends and how they are advising clients.

How should employers deal with union and non-union organizing?

American labor unions are seeing a resurgence, touching industries outside of the traditional labor strongholds of local government, health care and “smokestack industries,” including nonprofits, restaurants, coffee shops and cannabis dispensaries.

“We’ve seen a huge rise in the number of union petitions filed and union activity, which is more of a generational shift in the workplace,” said Melissa Healy, a partner at Stoel Rives. “A lot more clients are saying that employees are coming to them as a group.”

Clients ask how to respond to petitions to organize. The general process is that they first ask the employer for recognition before filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board.

“Like with any client, we feel them out on, 'What are your goals, your interests?' It’s a business operational issue first and legal issue second,” said John Dudrey, a Stoel...

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